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Further to its announcement on 8 December 2006 Applied Intellectual Capital (“AIC”) (AIM: AINC) is delighted to announce that EverClear Solutions Inc., (“EverClear”), in which AIC holds rights to a 60% stake, has entered into an agreement with Weatherly International (AIM: WTI “Weatherly”) to form a Joint Venture (“JV”) to recover copper, zinc, lead and silver from Weatherly’s Tsumeb mine tailings dam in Namibia. EverClear owns the exclusive rights to novel electrochemical metals recovery technologies developed by AIC.
Under the terms of the agreement with Weatherly, EverClear will pay US$4.6 million for a 50% interest in the right to process the 15,000,000 tonnes of Tsumeb mine tailings. EverClear will receive a 50% share of the net proceeds from the sale of recovered metals.
EverClear will make an initial payment of US$920,000 followed by the balance of US$3,680,000 consisting of a bankable feasibility study, including an on-site pilot plant and cash. EverClear and Weatherly will provide further funding to the JV to support operations. All capital costs for the JV are expected to be provided by third party financing.
The tailings contain unrefined copper, zinc, lead and silver ore. At today’s LME prices, data from publicly available sources indicate that the combined value of copper, zinc, lead and silver in the Tsumeb tailings is approximately US$1 billion.
As announced in January AIC has successfully completed laboratory trials, on behalf of EverClear, using samples provided by Weatherly from its Tsumeb dam. This has demonstrated yields in the range of 75-85% of refined high purity metals. Work is currently underway to establish the duration, capital cost and operating cost for full scale operation. Early indications are that on-site metals recovery and refining could take between 5 and 10 years. Provision has been made to terminate the JV should field pilot testing prove unsuccessful.
AIC is an AIM listed company that funds, develops, patents and commercializes electrochemical and advanced separations technologies in clean energy, electricity storage, water treatment, metals recovery and other emerging markets. AIC currently holds 35% of EverClear with an option to obtain a further 25%.
Dr Stephen Clarke, CEO of AIC, commented:
“This demonstrates that EverClear’s metals recovery process offers the potential to recover significant value from mine waste. Given the difficulty of processing this material using conventional technologies, any level of success at Tsumeb opens the door for EverClear to position its technology as a cost effective alternative to conventional primary recovery technologies in highly buffered ores.”